Object Matters

"During the mid-1980s the object of the condom became associated with the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In this book Nicole Vitellone investigates the consequences of this shift in the object's meaning." "Focusing on the US, British and Australian contexts, Object Matters addresses the impact of the discourse of safer sex on our lives and, in particular, the lives of adolescents. Addressing AIDS public health campaigns, sex education policies, sex research on adolescence and debates on the eroticisation of safer sex, the author looks at how the condom has affected our awareness of ourselves, of one another and our futures. In her examination of the condom in the late twentieth century, Vitellone critically engages with a range of literatures including those concerned with sexuality, adolescence, methods, gender and the body." "This book will be of interest to sex educators and academics as well as undergraduates and postgraduate students working in the areas of Sociology, History, Cultural Studies and Gender Studies."--Jacket.